Mourinho snubs Arsenal as he predicts the Premier League and Champions League winners
Former Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho didn’t mention Arsenal when discussing his predictions for the Champions League and Premier League.
Arsenal struggled a bit in December, losing three of their seven Premier League matches that month, handing over top spot to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
However, the Gunners have recovered since with four Premier League wins in a row, in which they’ve scored 16 goals, and are now two points behind leaders Liverpool.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City are in second place, level on points with Arsenal but with a game in hand on Mikel Arteta’s men and Liverpool.
And Mourinho doesn’t even mention Arsenal when picking out his contenders for the Premier League or Champions League, with the Gunners also through to the last 16 of that competition.
“Champions League, I would say City or Real Madrid,” Mourinho said on Rio Ferdinand’s Vibe with FIVE YouTube channel.
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“If somebody outside [those two] wins it, for me, it would be a great surprise.
“I would love Real Madrid to win it again for the club and for Carlo [Ancelotti]. I don’t know, Bayern Munich can do it, Paris Saint-Germain.
“Looking at potential, I think City/Liverpool for the Premier [League], City/Real for the Champions [League].”
Mourinho admitted his exit from Roma earlier this season was the managerial departure that “hurt” him the most as he gave a wide-ranging interview.
The former Man Utd and Tottenham boss added: “I gave everything, I gave my heart, I gave even some options that could be considered not very clever from the professional point of view,’ he said.
“I refused some great working opportunities. The first one was very hard to refuse because it was Portugal national team, probably the best Portugal national team ever and three years before a World Cup.
“Then I had a big one from Saudi and I didn’t hide it at the time because it was really big.
“I did it – normally I am very pragmatic in my choices, very professional in my choices and I try to be very emotionally controlled and you could see that when I left other clubs after winning finals.
“In this case I was not pragmatic, I was emotional and I gave everything. So in the end when I left, I left hurt. I had the great feeling that I gave so much happiness to the people.
“Two European finals in a row doesn’t happen too often, especially in a club like Roma which doesn’t have a big history of European success.
“Then I was walking in the street and the people were like “take us to Dublin, take us to Dublin” [for this year’s Europa League final] and so I had that in my mind, the third European final in a row.
“I refused some great working opportunities. The first one was very hard to refuse because it was Portugal national team, probably the best Portugal national team ever and three years before a World Cup.
“Then I had a big one from Saudi and I didn’t hide it at the time because it was really big.
“I did it – normally I am very pragmatic in my choices, very professional in my choices and I try to be very emotionally controlled and you could see that when I left other clubs after winning finals.
“In this case I was not pragmatic, I was emotional and I gave everything. So in the end when I left, I left hurt. I had the great feeling that I gave so much happiness to the people.
“Two European finals in a row doesn’t happen too often, especially in a club like Roma which doesn’t have a big history of European success.
“Then I was walking in the street and the people were like ‘take us to Dublin, take us to Dublin’ [for this year’s Europa League final] and so I had that in my mind, the third European final in a row.”
